complément

Forms

complément m (plural compléments)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin complēmentum (“that which completes”), formed from compleō (“to fill up, finish, perfect”).^[2][3][4] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date the word to 1308 but say that it was taken up again in 1690.^[5][6] Bloch and Wartburg date it only from 1690 and think that the few 14th- and 16th-century examples, meaning “accomplishment”, were probably formed on the Old French verb complir (“to accomplish”).^[7]

It is a doublet of compliment.^[1] Littré compares Old Occitan complement.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, in 1308, is in Aimé du Mont-Cassin's Ystoire de li Normant, in the phrase venir a complement, with the active sense “carrying out, accomplishment”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The abstract sense “accomplishment”, sometimes with a shade of “perfection”, gave way to the concrete sense “what completes something”, first found in a royal ordinance of 1347 about a sufficient supply of small coin.^[2][3][8] This sense was then specialised in geometry (1690), astronomy and music (1732).^[3][2]

In grammar the term was brought in by Du Marsais, between 1720 and 1750, to free French grammar from the Latin model, which spoke of the régime; the TLFi finds it in Abbé Girard's grammar of 1747.^[3][2] The theological phrase complément de béatitude (1732), the extra bliss of the blessed after the Last Judgement, revives the old sense of fulfilment.^[3][8] Until the First World War officier de complément meant a reserve officer.^[9]

Timeline

• 1308 – First record, meaning “accomplishment”, in Aimé du Mont-Cassin.^[2][3]
• 1347 – A royal ordinance uses it for “what completes something”.^[2][8]
• 1690 – Furetière records the geometric sense.^[2][9]
• 1732 – Senses in astronomy and music, and the theological complément de béatitude.^[3]
• 1747 – Abbé Girard uses it as a grammatical term.^[2]
• 1753 – The Encyclopédie has complément d'un intervalle in music.^[2]
• 1791 – The derivative complémentaire appears.^[3][7]
• 1798 – The Académie records the grammatical sense.^[9][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. What is added, or must be added, to a thing to make it complete: un complément d'information.^[6][2]
2. The remainder of a sum: verser le complément d'une somme.^[6][8]
3. (grammar) A word or clause that completes the meaning of another word: complément d'objet direct, complément circonstanciel.^[6][1]
4. (geometry) The angle that must be added to a given angle to make a right angle.^[9][8]
5. (mathematics, optics) A complement.^[1]

Word family

• complémentaire
• complémenter

Related words

• compliment
• complet
• Latin complēmentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 979b
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse